


Kids & Cats

by hatandgoggles



Series: Voltron single dad AU [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Single Dad AU, background shallura - Freeform, no drama just fluff, nobody is an alien
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 01:55:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8351758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hatandgoggles/pseuds/hatandgoggles
Summary: Voltron single dad AUShiro has his doubts when his youngest son begs him to take home a stray cat. However, after some time the cat decides it's time for her to go home, leading the Shirogane family to her owner.A beat for beat retelling of The Rise Of Voltron, made as an introduction to the alternate universe I'm placing the characters in for this ongoing series. After this it will be (mostly) all-original episodic short stories that sometimes bleed into each other.





	1. Chapter 1

“And don’t run off too far, or I’ll put the harness back on you!” Shiro shouted as Lance ran up ahead of the others, still eating his ice cream. He had been holding the boy back all day. He knew the kid needed to blow off some steam, so he decided to let him go in an area he knew Lance knows well.

“Dad, I’m 8. I don’t need the harness to begin with.” He said with his arms crossed and a frown on his face.

“I’ll believe that when you stop disappearing on me.” Shiro said, ruffling the boy’s hair. The park was quiet this time of the day. He lifted Pidge from his shoulders and carefully set her down in the sandbox before taking a seat on a nearby bench from which he could easily keep an eye on his kids.

Except for Lance.

Shit.

\----

“It’s okay, kitty. I’m not gonna hurt you.” Lance said as he slowly reached for the cat with hands that were still sticky from the ice cream. The cat didn’t seem to be the least bit worried, almost immediately nuzzling into Lance’s hand. Lance carefully picked the cat up, keeping one arm around her torso and the other under her legs and ran back to the playground in the park. The cat had short, thick fur that seemed to have a blue sheen over it and bright yellow eyes that followed him everywhere. “Dad! Look what I found!” Oops… Lance’s face fell as soon as he saw the expression on his dad’s face.

“Lance, what did I tell you about running off without telling me?”

“That I shouldn’t do it…” Lance pouted.

“Then why did you do it?”

“I heard this cat… It was stuck under a box with a brick on top of it! I felt so bad for it, so I set it free. I think it likes me! Can we take it home, dad? Pleeeeaaaaaase?”

Shiro let out a deep sigh “okay, fine. But because Katie can’t stay with us all the time, the three of you will have to take care of it on your own. Understood?”

"Understood!"

\----

And that’s how it was for the next two days. Lance, Keith and Hunk took care of Blue together and Pidge played with her as she came and went. She seemed to calm the boys down a lot, making Shiro’s job a lot easier. Things were finally looking up for the Shirogane household until Hunk showed up at the dinner table.

“Has anyone seen Blue?” he asked.

“No,” said Keith, “but I saw an open window in the living room. Maybe she escaped through there.”

“Can we go look for her, dad? Please?” Hunk pleaded.

“I’m not sure, guys… Dinner is almost ready. Can’t we wait?” Shiro asked, hopeful they would say yes.

“No!” the smallest of the four piped up, “The longer she’s out there, the further she can wander.” Pidge crossed her arms sternly, “Besides, I opened the window. I’m sorry I let the cat escape…” She then looked up to Shiro with the biggest, cutest doe eyes she could muster, knowing he wouldn’t stand a chance.

Shiro sighed and turned off the stove. “Okay. Let’s go.”

\----

It took them about half an hour to come back to the exact same alley where Lance initially found Blue. With Shiro’s permission the kids split up, looking for her in the surrounding alleys. Lance stayed there to search through the boxes and trash cans. “Heeeere, kitty, kitty, kitty. C’mon, Blue, give me a sign!”

Then he heard it, a shrill meow, followed by very content purring. Lance whipped around to find his cat in the arms of a beautiful woman with electric blue eyes, smooth, dark skin and wavy, pearly white hair, probably only one or two years younger than Shiro.

“Have you been taking care of Blue while she was away?” She asked. Lance could only nod, completely taken by her beauty and friendliness. “Don’t you think it’s funny we both gave her the same name?” When she giggled, Lance could feel his heart jump in his chest. He was so sure. He knew she was _the one_. Without any hesitation, he sprinted toward the alley he knew Shiro was searching in.

“Dad! Dad, you need to come with me, _right now_.” Lance said, pulling on his arm, taking him back to the white haired woman. By the time they made it there, the others had already arrived. The woman left Blue in the careful arms of Hunk, who allowed Pidge and Keith to pet her too, and looked up at Shiro.

“I’m, uh, sorry. We didn’t know Blue was your cat.” Shiro said, scratching behind his ear. “If we’d known she belonged to anyone we wouldn’t have taken her home.”

“No!” she said “If anything, I’m glad you and your family took care of her these last few days. My neighbor, he doesn’t exactly like my cats because they always play in his flower bed, so sometimes he sets up traps for them around the neighborhood. If your son hadn’t found her, I don’t know what would have become of her. I’d like to thank you.”

“That won’t be necessary—“

“My uncle always cooks far too much for dinner. It’s 6:30, and you look like you haven’t eaten yet. I insist.”

\----

The woman introduced herself as Allura. A very fitting name, Shiro thought, for this woman who appeared to be a Lady in every single possible way.

“Uncle Coran, I’m home! I brought some friends over for dinner.”

“Friends?” a head poked through the doorway to the kitchen. The man was probably in his late forties, but despite that there wasn’t a single gray hair to be found on his head or in his thick mustache. He smiled brightly at this strange new man and the children surrounding him and ushered them into the kitchen. “Go on, pick a seat! Make yourselves at home. You’re lucky I made extra. We’re having macaroni bolognese.”

“Great!” Hunk said as he hopped into a chair at the dinner table “I’m starving.”

“It’s been ages since we last had pasta too.” Keith added.

Shiro turned to the man he earlier heard Allura call Coran as the kids chattered away at the dinner table. “I’m really sorry for intruding like this, but your niece was _very_ persistent.” He said with a sheepish smile on his face.

“Don’t worry about it, son. It doesn’t happen every day that she brings home a nice, responsible young man like yourself. Name’s Coran, by the way.” The mustachioed man said with a wide grin on his face.

Shiro frowned slightly, but that did little about the blush growing on his cheeks “I really don’t think she brought us here because of that. I’m Takashi. Or Shiro. That’s what everyone calls me anyway.”

Coran chuckled, “I’m sorry. Maybe I went a little over board there. Though, if I’m completely honest, she could use a friend like you.” They watched Allura serving the kids their dinner.

“You know, Coran…" Shiro said as he looked at Allura having fun with his kids "I think I could use a friend like her too.” And with that, he sat down at the table and joined the conversation, not noticing Coran smiling fondly at him.


	2. Chapter 2

Dinner that evening took much longer than usual, but it was a welcome change. As it turns out, Coran is a very good cook and Shiro was more than happy to watch the kids munch away at something infinitely better than he felt he could put together himself. It was nice, though, not having to do everything by himself for once and getting to make conversation with grownups other than the boys’ teachers.

He learned that Allura was well on her way to become a successful business woman, speaking more languages than he could count on his hand and was familiar with etiquettes from all around the world. He also learned that Allura had been living with Coran since she was very young, but the sad look on her uncle’s face stopped him from pushing any further.

“So, what’s up with your cats anyway? Why don’t you just keep them inside?” Keith asked, looking up at Allura from his seat next to her.

“Well, how would you feel if your dad kept you inside at all times in fear of you getting lost?”

“Dad did that to Lance for a week once after he wandered off at the mall.”

“Yeah, that sucked!” Lance interjected, quickly followed by a stern _‘Lance.’_ from Shiro.

“Only Blackie is a real inside cat.” She said with a smile on her face, shoving her chair away from the table to reveal a large, fat, black cat lounging under the table, meowing quietly as she nudged it with her foot. “She _really_ hates going outside. Every time we go to the vet is an absolute nightmare.”

“Wait, hold up, aside from Blue and Blackie, how many cats do you have?” Shiro asked, shocked by the sheer amount of cats could be wandering around the house at maximum.

“Well, there’s Blue and Blackie, Verde, Red and Goldilocks.”

“You’ve got five kitties?!” Pidge piped up, looking at Allura with large, sparkling eyes. Allura could only chuckle and pat her head.

“Exactly. You already know Blue, she is very friendly and likes to meet new people. Verde is very smart and she loves nature. She’s been getting into trouble with Mr. Sendak for digging up his flower beds. Goldilocks is usually the gentle giant to Red’s arrogant loose cannon and, well, that leaves Blackie. She doesn’t have to step in much, but she’s usually the unifying factor in this band of misfits. If I’m completely honest, they remind me of the five of you. One wouldn’t expect them to work so well together, but they do.”

“Like us!” Pidge giggled.

Lance’s eyes suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree. “So you have a lot of cats, right?”

“Uh, right. That’s what I was talking about just now.”

“And there’s only two here, right?” he kept asking, starting to go somewhere.

“Exactly.” Allura nodded.

“Then we should go on an adventure! We could split up in groups and go look for the big, wild lions that escaped from the mothership!” Lance narrated, making big gestures as he always did. “By the way, I call dibs on Hunk.”

“Dibs on Shiro!” Pidge shouted, grabbing his hand.

“Whoa, back up there, young man. You and Hunk are _not_ going outside at this time without someone to look after you.” Shiro intervened. Lance always came up with these wild ideas, getting everyone excited, but in the end Shiro was only one man and he could only be in one place. He turned around when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Your son has such a wild imagination, it would be a shame to see that go to waste. I’ll go with them, then you can go outside with your little girl.” Coran said enthusiastically.

“Um, thank you, but she’s not my—”

“What about me?” Came a small voice from behind Shiro. Keith was the only one who hadn’t been picked yet.

“Oh, I have an idea!” Coran crouched down to his level. “You could go with the princess when she finishes doing the dishes.”

“Coran, it was your turn—”

“Sorry, I can’t hear you over the responsibility of guiding these young paladins on their first intergalactic mission!”

\---

 

The park was quiet and almost empty when Shiro wandered around, firmly holding on to Pidge’s hand. It had been about an hour since they left Allura’s place. On multiple occasions Shiro had done the suggestion to go home, but on each of those occasions the little girl shot them down. She was more than determined to bring this cat home. The sky was starting to turn orange, and he was about to suggest going home again when he felt a sharp elbow nudging his thigh.

“Shiro, did you hear that?” Pidge whispered loudly and Shiro shook his head. “Listen harder!” She hissed again and Shiro closed his eyes. If he focused really hard, he could hear the sound of a meowing cat, coming from a bush only thirty feet away from them.

Shiro ran over and moved the leaves aside, revealing a small cat with a bright green collar. “She’s here!” He said, calling over his small companion. “The branches are too tightly wound together. There’s no way I can reach her.”

“That’s what you’ve got me for!” Pidge piped up and she crawled on the dirt, into the bush and safely extracted the cat.

“Your mom is going to kill us both when I drop you off.”

\---

 

 “Uh, Lance? I’m not sure breaking in to a construction site would be a good idea.” Hunk said, nervously watching his youngest brother climbing over the fence.

“Exactly! We can just wait for her to come out!” Coran added.

Lance scoffed, “Why did I pick you bunch of weenies for this... There’s nobody here! Coran, you keep watch. Hunk, come with me.”

With a deep sigh, Hunk hooked his fingers into the mesh of the fence, kicked his feet between the wires and slowly and carefully scaled the fence, whereas Lance let himself drop to the ground halfway down.

The boys wandered around the construction site for a solid ten minutes before finding goldilocks in a tight corner behind the construction workers’ break room.

They heard barking. Two large Rottweilers came sprinting at them. Lance thought quickly and pushed Hunk into the narrow space behind the break room while bolting away himself, catching the attention of the dogs and keeping them away from his big brother.

“Meet me at the fence!” the youngest shouted, outrunning the guard dogs for now.

Hunk sighed, carefully lifting the heavy materials and putting them away, making enough space for him to squeeze between and carefully pick up the fluffy cat. He quickly made his way back to the fence, keeping his eyes trained on Lance and the guard dogs. He lifted the cat up to his shoulder and scaled the fence, handing Goldilocks to Coran before sitting down on the edge of the fence more balanced and leaning down, grabbing Lance by his collar and pulling him up, helping him climb more quickly.

When their feet touched the ground on Coran’s side of the fence, the boys leaned against it, exhausted, breathing heavily. Coran would have scolded them, but from the looks on their faces he could see the boys had already learned their lesson.

\---

 

Keith stared up at the red cat halfway up the tree in Mr. Sendak’s back yard. The cat was staring back at him, with a smug look on her face. Keith was on his own now. Everyone was still out looking for the other cats and Allura was inside, doing the dishes.

He took a few steps back and ran at the wooden fence, giving him just enough momentum to successfully climb up. He quickly found his balance, standing on the thin beams. He took a few deep breaths before jumping up, grabbing the first branch and pulling himself onto it. From there, he slowly advanced towards the cat that was still staring at him, watching intently.

“Seriously, what do you want from me?” Keith asked, finally climbing onto the branch the cat was sitting on, slowly crawling towards her. “I’m a friend of your mom’s. You could be a little nicer. Just come closer.” When he reached for the cat she quickly jumped down to another branch. “Oh come on!”

Suddenly there was a loud cracking sound behind him. He didn’t notice he had bent the branch as much as he did, it was only a matter of time until it snapped.

Everything was black for a hot minute. His nerves exploded with pain, there was a loud ringing in his ears and… licking? On his face? With a groan, Keith sat up and opened his eyes to find the red cat sitting next to him, looking up at him. Less smugly, this time. Keith pulled the cat into his chest with a smile, lying back down until Shiro and Allura came running outside.

“Good kitty.”

\---

 

“Keith? Keith!” Allura called for him running out of the house, finding the unmoving boy lying on the lawn. She knelt down by him, unsure whether or not to move him. Shiro was hot on her heels, crouching beside her. He reached out to check him over, but Red started hissing at him and batted his hand away as soon as he so much as pointed at Keith.

The sound must have woke him up. He opened his eyes to the blurry sight of Shiro and Allura leaning over him. As his world slowly became more in focus he could see the concern in their eyes and on their faces and oh no. Those were tears in their eyes. He is in so much trouble right now.

“It’s… It’s not as bad as it looks.” Keith managed to croak. “Look, Red listened to me.”

“I don’t care!” Shiro shouted, his voice cracking as the tears spilled from his eyes, rolling down his cheeks and dripping onto Keith’s surprised face. He’d never meant to make his dad this sad. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?! You could have broken an arm, a leg, your back, every bone in your entire body! You could have--”

“What your father is trying to say,” Allura cut him off before his mind and his mouth could wander to more unpleasant scenarios. “is that what you did was very reckless and we want you to not do it again.”

“Ever. Understood?”

“Yeah.” Keith groaned, only groaning louder when Shiro gently picked him up and carried him inside.

He hissed when Coran disinfected the cuts and scratches while Allura gently placed band aids on the cleaned wounds and Shiro gently stroked his still throbbing head while they waited for the aspirin to kick in.

Red was sitting right beside him, still not liking the look of other people touching him, but she seemed to understand it was for his own good.

“Well,”Allura smiled, “at least we finally found someone Red will listen to.”

Keith couldn’t help but grin triumphantly.

\---

 

Allura was surprised when the man with the white hair bowed to her.

“I’m so sorry about tonight. I know the kids can be a handful, but I’m grateful you made the time to help me out with them. I promise, we won’t trouble you again.”

“Please, there’s no reason to bow, Mr. Shirogane.” Allura smiled as she gently pulled him back in an upright position. “I had a lot of fun tonight. You know… if you’d like, you could come over more often. The children could play in the yard and Coran and I could take some of the workload off your back.”

With the way she was looking at him and the offer she was making, Shiro couldn’t help but stare at her. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can—”, he started before Hunk spoke up.

“We’ll gladly take your offer on behalf of our dad. He deserves friends like you and Coran to help him.” With that, Hunk turned to his father as if to scold him. “Dad, we love you and we respect you, but we also know you’re only human. Taking care of the four of us takes a lot out of you. So please, for once in your life, don’t be stubborn about being polite all the time and turning down any offer you get and just say yes.”

Shiro looked around, all of his sons, Katie and Allura were all looking at him expectantly. He knew Hunk was right. He knew doing everything by himself was exhausting him. He knew that when something was wrong with him, Hunk was always the one to make sure everything turned out okay.

And so, for the good of his children and himself, he took a deep breath and he said “Yes. I’d love that, thank you. And please, call me Shiro.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can read more about how I'm using the show's characters here! https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106342194/single%20dad%20AU.docx
> 
> I'm planning to write more for this AU after this intro fic! I have a few abstract ideas, but you can always message me with suggestions or ideas right here, on my tumblr (surfingthewavesoffeminism), DeviantART (hat-and-goggles) or twitter (hatandgoggles)!
> 
> Next chapter: the quest for Allura's cats!


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